Sunday, July 27, 2008

We saw this cool Camper on the way to the airport. Note the prius a short ways ahead of it.

The boys and I play a car game up here in Anchorage, trying to be the first to call out a sighting of either a Prius, Corvette, VW Bug or a few more exotic cars that we rarely see, like Ferrari's. If we were calling out pick-ups, there would be constant yelling in my car up here. Now, in California, Prius's seem to be the car of choice. The boys were constantly calling them out.

No exageration, we were at a Farmer Market by my mother's (we walked to it) and I counted 4 Prius's in less than 20 seconds. This was a big difference from just a few years ago, when everyone seemed to be driving SUV's. It's a nice change. Hybrid's everywhere.

I'm pleased to report that the sun made a brief appearance this afternoon while I was BBQ'ing dinner. There were brief periods of rain also, but at this point, who cares, I felt sunshine on my face.

In honor of sunshine, I thought I'd share a few pictures from the Farmer's Market in San Mateo, California. I was the dorky tourist, oogling and taking pictures of all the freshly grown fruits and veggies, like I'd never seen it before.

That's me with a bag full of nectarines, peaches, and mint for Mojitos. Yummy!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

For those of you reading this from somewhere besides Anchorage, we have had one of the coldest summer on record. We've had only 3 days over 70 degrees this year, and, with August just around the corner, it's not likely to happen again, this year. Plus, there was snow on several pikes in the Chugach Range on Thursday am.

Serves me right for buying 3 new pairs of sandals this year. What was I thinking? The good news is that they'll be usable next season, too. Oh, the other reason the weathers been so bad, is because we decided to get the house painted this year. We've had primer all over the house now for at least a month. Our painter keeps calling to apologize about the weather. Not his fault. I will not buy sandals or get the outside of the house painted next year. Promise.

Then, maybe we'll have a summer like the summer of 04, when all the kids spent there summer days in an outdoor blow-up pool, and we barbecued every night, because our homes were too hot to cook in.

I think most of us stick around, because we seem to forget the bad summers quickly and chose to remember those good summer days we've had, no matter how few there are.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Yep, that's my son, Ian, kissing a giant Banana Slug. I'm so proud of him. It's sort of a tradition that a kid should either lick or kiss a banana slug when they're at camp. Since we were just visiting Memorial Park, a redwood forest in Northern California south of San Francisco, I suggest both boys continue this tradition. And, while Vince was absolutely fearless about holding that slimy slug, he passed on the kiss or lick. I'm not kidding about the slimy part. Soap and water didn't do the trick after holding that Banana size slug. It took several good wipes on the pants to get the slime off. I'd like to see Nickolodeon use Banana Slug slime instead of that green watery gook they use.

I was so glad we'd found that gianormous slug, because the boys thought I'd been exagerating about how big banana slugs can get. In fact, we were able to find quite a few "baby" size ones before Ian actually found the giant. I kept telling the kiddo's that these were just too small, and we need to keep looking. Ian actually kissed this little guy earlier, but I told him it was too small too count. I'm such a meanie.

So, the other thing giant in Memorial Park, is of course the Redwood trees. I think they are one of my favorite trees. Them and the classic Oak Trees that are all over the foothills of California. Enjoyed sitting in the shade under a few of those later in the week. More stories about California to come later.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

We're back from our 10 day trip to Northern California. We had a great time and I did manage to get a little knitting and book reading done and think I'm a little closer to making the perfect Mojito.

We spent the 4th of July at Great America Amusement Park. Figured since it was an America themed amusement park, they'd have some "special" 4th of July events. Nope, nada,nothing. We still managed to have a "great" day. The ride to the left is called the Survivor and is based of the tv show. What a blast! The whole family thought it was the best ride that we'd been on. Yes, this ride spins and rides the rail like a roller coast. It goes just slow enough though to not be crazy. Keep in mind that we didn't ride every ride and a few rides in the park looked insane!

Here's two of them. The roller coaster I might of done when I was a teen, but now a days, I'd end up sick for the rest of the day. The second ride is a swing that is way, way, way up in the air when they let it drop. No way, never.

We ended up leaving before dark, since there were no fireworks planned at the park. We did end up watching fireworks though. We had a decent view from near my mom's house of large fireworks displays all around the SF Bay Area. We saw some amazing ones towards San Jose-Silicon Valley area that were shapes. Saw an apple shape, jupiter or saturn shapes, hearts, some very cool stuff that, we're guessing were from a big company, like, Yahoo. Just way too big to be funded by a city. No pictures of them,though sorry.

Have to say it was our best 4th in a very long time. My next post will be about another event we did while in CA and also a very proud moment I had as a mother. HINT: Think Banana Slugs.......

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Last time I posted to my blog, I visited the Ravelry site to get a link and found that I had a message. The message was from one of the volunteer editor (ErikaS57), requesting to use a picture of my cashmere scarf project for the pattern photo. Of course I immediately responded with a yes reply. Here's a link to the project with my photo.

That was a nice knitting surprise, though, the reality is that my photo may be the only one for this project.

Also, here's a picture of my very adorable SIL with her new hat and gloves. She loved them. The photo at the top is a picture of her new puppy, Cupcake, a Bichon/poodle cross. I just thought it was such a cute picture, I had to share it. I'll post some another time of Cupcake and Peanut, her other puppy. Very cute. Plus, I'll share some pictures of all the beautiful produce at the farmers market that I went to on Saturday.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Finished my gift for my SIL, just in time to personally hand it to her in CA. Not hat and glove weather down there, but come winter, she'll be all set. I plan on knitting another set for my youngest niece before her birthday, in September. Not sure what yarn I'd like to use for her. I may end up using some yarn from my stash. I have some Lush that might end up being perfect. It so soft and shouldn't be too itchy for a 7 year old.

Leaving first thing in the am to CA, so I've decided to take along the Lotus Blossom Tank project. I would love to get it close to finished while I'm down, and have even packed another 2 skeins of yarn that should do the job. The only glitch is that the 3rd set of circulars that I need are holding a hat project that I haven't touched in a few months. I'm bringing that project down too, just in case I get to the point that I need these needles. I even considered making myself finish the hat project before I used the needles, but knitting a wool/alpaca hat by the pool doesn't sound good to me. The bamboo yarn I'm using for the Lotus Blossom Tank is a nice cooling yarn.

I was just at the Ravelry site getting some links for this blog and found out some exciting news about one of my knitting projects. I'll share that news on my next blog.

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About Me

I've been knitting on and off since I was 10. Taught myself after my grandmother decided she couldn't teach a lefty. Used a book to learn and just a few years ago found out from a friend that I was knitting right handed. I'm now knitting left handed (Continental) and much faster. I work 3 days a week at my son's school and have 2 sons and 2 dogs. My husband and I moved to Alaska over 17 years ago from San Francisco and we all enjoy living here, however, we wish winter was a month shorter on both ends.